12/28/2010
"Let us welcome life." I didn't notice the theme of a small
publication I received last August but when I came to throw it out a
few days ago, it spoke to me. What a New Year's resolution: LET'S
WELCOME LIFE!
To welcome life is to keep our hearts open to joy, hope and the
certainty that God watches over each one of us.
To welcome life is to be present. Present to God's presence. Present
to others.
To welcome life is to be welcoming. So many people feel alone. They
blog, text, use facebook, to be noticed, to find meaning. But it's
much easier today to be ALONE. I never felt alone growing up in the
40's and 50's. From 1948 to 1956, more or less, I had a pen pal in
Czechoslovakia. What a treasure when she wrote! A decade later, when
Canada hosted Expo 67 in Montreal, she remembered her pen pal and
wrote to my last address. My parents had moved to the other side of
the city in 1956 but the postman still found them. The letter was in
Czech - she no longer remembered her high school English and her
uncle was no longer there to help her. Life is not instantaneous. It
has to savoured.
To welcome life is to welcome family. Aunt Marie-Anne, my mother's
sister, lived in the States. She sent cards for birthdays. My
youngest sister, her godchild, would get a dollar in hers. When she
had rheumatic fever, she got a card every day. Each one had a puzzle
whose answer was given on the back of the next card. I remember the
excitement of working on that puzzle. Phoning grandparents; talking
about it with my classmates. That was around 1950. And we wrote to
Aunt Marie-Anne - letters carefully inspected by my mom for spelling,
grammar and penmanship. When mom died in 1990, I asked Aunt Marie-
Anne, who at 80 was housekeeper for a not-so-welcoming retired priest
in Florida, to include in her letters some memories of mom and of us
when we were young. I treasure these few letters written in her usual
franglish. In January, my last aunt, Aunt Aldea, will be 94. She's
also a letter writer - never just signs her name to a card. On my
birthday card in May, she'll thank me for my St Patrick's Day card
and my Easter card.
To welcome life is to welcome the circle of friends, of
acquaintances. I am touched when I go to a memorial service to find,
on a weekday, former students - all grown-up in their suits and ties,
high-heel and chic outfits. Why are you here, I asked students at the
funeral of a non-francophone, non-Catholic father of one of my
1975-78 francophone high school students. I had met the mother but
never the father, a prominent business man. Their answer made sense:
45 years earlier they had come together at the same French
kindergarten and had been together in small schools, small classes
all the way through. They were there for their classmates, Ruth and
Esther. Why wouldn't they be there?
"To welcome life, is to welcome people," someone from Belgium wrote
in the pamphlet. " It is to welcome people who give you life, people
who are hurting, who are waiting for you, who reveal to you who you
are, who are bearers of hope, who can recognize their mistakes, who
know how to encourage others, who know how to see and who can make a
commitment, who live events as they unfold and remain peaceful, who
are gladdened by the talents of others, who take time daily to
dialogue with the One who is Life.
How will I welcome life today, tomorrow, in 2011?
12/21/2010
A few Christmas reflections:
No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truly poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God - for them there
will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone.
That someone is God.
Emmanuel. God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can be no abundance of God.
Oscar Romero
For all that has been, thanks,
For all that will be ... yes.
Dag Hammarsjold
When the song of the angel is still,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are at home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among peoples,
To make music in the heart.
Howard Thurman
Christmas Blessings! Cecily
12/13/2010
"The deeply hidden silent suffering at the center of reality does not leave any human being untouched. Only by acknowledging this hidden suffering that binds our heart to the heart of all human beings can we become truly compassionate people who do not add violence to violence by good intentions, but who reverently bow before that sacred empty space where God chose to lay down his broken, wounded body and from where he was raised up. The hidden quality of all suffering ... calls us to live our small lives in compassionate solidarity with all humanity, a humanity destined to be raised up as a new creation. By reaching out to the suffering ... we come to touch with the source of joy, precisely because joy is not the opposite of suffering but hidden in the very center of it. True joy is always found where we move to the very heart of the empty tomb of humanity."
from Our Light and our Salvation: Advent reflections from the works of Henri J. M. Nouwen
12/7/2010
Sunday we celebrated the second Sunday of Advent. Michael Dougherty of Whitehorse, Yukon, wrote Sunday's reflection in the daily missal Living with Christ. Here is an excerpt:
"The Alaska Highway runs 2,237 km between Dawson Creek, British Columbia and Delta Junction, Alaska. War and the fear of an invasion launched the construction of this road in 1942. In under eight months a pioneer road twisted its way over mountains, through deep muskeg and dark forests.
".... Today the world spends more than a trillion dollars annually on weapons and military forces. Fear once again grips us. Will we ever see the world Isaiah speaks of the first reading? (Isaiah 11.1-10)
".... In the gospel, John the Baptist urges us on, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." John calls us to repent. We must reject our global culture of death.
".... Hunger, disease and poverty - both the source and result of conflicts today - have to be vanquished. We must forsake age old hatreds and intolerance. Through Jesus we can truly hope that the wold will live with the lamb."
Cecily
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